Greenpeacehttp://www.adweek.com/taxonomy/term/2675/all
enA Little Girl's Deep-Sea Dream Is Shattered in Greenpeace's Latest Plea for the Arctichttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/little-girls-deep-sea-dream-shattered-greenpeaces-latest-plea-arctic-170071
David Gianatasio<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/greenpeace-little-explorer-ep-2016.jpg"> <p>
Greenpeace brings a young girl&#39;s undersea imagination to life in &quot;The Little Explorer,&quot; a short film that tackles the topic of destructive fishing in the Arctic.&nbsp;</p>
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Using materials she finds around the house&mdash;including tinfoil, bottle tops and paper plates&mdash;our curly-haired heroine constructs an elaborate (and adorable) deep-sea diving suit. Her living room is transformed into an aquatic wonderland beneath the polar ice floes. She watches wide-eyed as Greenland sharks, Beluga whales and sea butterflies sail past the windows of her cardboard submarine.&nbsp;</p>
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But suddenly, the scene is torn apart by mysterious tremors, and we&#39;re left to ponder the horrifying net results.<br />
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Crafted with great style by London agency Don&#39;t Panic and director Simon Mitchell, &quot;The Little Explorer&quot; does a fine job of capturing this brutal reality through a child&#39;s eyes. Seven-year-old Emily Dante gives a charming, relaxed performance, providing a relatable center for the showy visuals.</p>
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She was cast, Don&#39;t Panic creative director Richard Beer tells AdFreak, because she radiated &quot;just the right blend of innocence, imagination and defiance.&quot;</p>
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In the first few seconds of the clip, as the Little Explorer constructs her suit, we hear a countdown in the background, suggesting that she plans to travel into space. So when her ocean fantasy begins, it comes as something of a twist&mdash;which is exactly what Greenpeace intended.</p>
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&quot;It&#39;s the classic childhood dream&mdash;to explore strange new worlds, to boldly go where no one has gone before,&quot; Beer says. &quot;We wanted to cheekily subvert that dream to draw attention to something closer to home. We&#39;re all for the exploration of space, but perhaps we should focus a little more on saving our own planet instead of destroying it.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
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The video will be pushed globally through Greenpeace Facebook pages and on YouTube. It&#39;s a fitting follow-up to the client-agency team&#39;s animated PSA&nbsp;<a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/even-if-you-hate-greenpeace-and-love-lego-you-have-admire-gorgeous-attack-ad-158809" target="_blank">&quot;Everything Is NOT Awesome,&quot;</a>&nbsp;also for the #SaveTheArctic campaign, which won Silver Lions in the Film and Cyber categories at Cannes last year.&nbsp;</p>
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That earlier effort focused on a specific target, Lego, which at the time had partnered with petroleum giant Shell, an arrangement it soon discarded. &quot;Everything Is NOT Awesome&quot; drove home its message with instantly recognizable imagery, such as interlocking Lego bricks and Shell&#39;s logo.</p>
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In &quot;The Little Explorer,&quot; the threat of trawl fishing is more nebulous, and required a markedly different approach, which Beer explains in detail:&nbsp;</p>
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&quot;We didn&#39;t think that pure CGI would be the most effective way to bring the beauty of the Arctic to life, so we combined two elements: first, good old-fashioned childhood imagination, in the form of a whole aquarium&#39;s worth of cardboard fish, foil narwhals, paper jellyfish and countless other amazing Arctic lifeforms built by Anne Gry Skovdal, our art director, and her team; and second, in-camera projections of real footage of Arctic life, which needed no amplification or enhancement.&quot;</p>
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He adds: &quot;We used some great effects from The Brewery to show the threat of a trawling net intruding menacingly into Emily&#39;s fantasy, but that was the only few seconds of CGI we needed. Sadly, we really did destroy all of Anne&#39;s good work with an actual net that we dragged through the set.&quot;</p>
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In real life, such potentially destructive endeavors, taken to their logical extreme, could wipe out entire species, and forever lay waste to explorers&#39; dreams. Says Beer: &quot;No one&#39;s going to dream about the wonder of Arctic sea life if it&#39;s all been ripped away.&quot;&nbsp;</p>
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<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: Greenpeace</p>
<p>
Agency: Don&#39;t Panic:<br />
MD of Don&#39;t Panic: Joe Wade<br />
Creative Director of Don&#39;t Panic: Richard Beer<br />
Project lead: Nisha Mullea<br />
Creative: George McCullum<br />
Creative: Alistair Griggs<br />
Creative: Morgan Fiebig<br />
Creative: Eva Steiner</p>
<p>
Production:<br />
The Little Explorer: Emily Dante<br />
Director of Photography: David Wright<br />
Art Director: Anne Gry Skovdal<br />
Director: Simon Mitchell<br />
Producer: Charlie Miller&nbsp;</p>
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Greenpeace:<br />
Edward Beshkow<br />
Akshey Kalra<br />
Mikael Arman<br />
Isadora Wronski<br />
Christian Uhlenfeldt</p>
Advertising & BrandingGreenDon’t PanicGreenpeaceUnited KingdomCreativeAgencyWed, 09 Mar 2016 15:32:18 +0000170071 at http://www.adweek.comReggie Watts Has Created Truly Odd Greenpeace Ads Aimed at the Tech Industryhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/reggie-watts-has-created-some-truly-odd-greenpeace-ads-aimed-tech-industry-159603
David Gianatasio<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/greenpeace-reggie-watts-internet-hed-2014.png"> <p>
Reggie Watts yodels, raps, hangs with woodland fauna, floats on a giant leaf and generally goofs around in a quartet of new videos from Greenpeace.</p>
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The environmental group is sending a message to certain tech giants about using sustainable energy sources. &quot;Some of the Internet&#39;s biggest and most innovative companies, such as Apple, Facebook and Google, are powering with modern, renewable energy,&quot; Greenpeace rep Dave Pomerantz told BusinessGreen. &quot;The <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/clickclean/" target="_blank">#ClickClean movement</a> expects the rest of the companies behind our online world, like Amazon and Twitter, to join them.&quot;</p>
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No firms are named in the ads, which were created by The VIA Agency.</p>
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&quot;We set out to develop a campaign that had humor at its core and that people would rally behind and share,&quot; said Via executive producer Mary Hanifin. &quot;Reggie&rsquo;s unique brand of comedy, devoted following and ability to convey complex themes through humor made him a perfect fit.&quot;</p>
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The comedian and musician has some experience with the clean-power issue, having contributed to <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/reggie-watts-really-wants-you-stop-paying-carbon-pollution-148074">a Climate Reality Project spot last year.</a> For Greenpeace&mdash;fresh off its gorgeous ad <a href="http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/even-if-you-hate-greenpeace-and-love-lego-you-have-admire-gorgeous-attack-ad-158809">attacking Lego for partnering with Shell</a>&mdash;Watts sustains a tone that gives the material an offbeat, non-judgmental spark. He uses improvisation to amp up the scripts, and his silly, slightly subversive comic energy feels just right.</p>
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Via <a href="http://www.fastcocreate.com/3034427/reggie-watts-and-greenpeace-want-you-and-twitter-and-pinterest-to-create-a-cleaner-internet" target="_blank">Fast Company</a>.<br />
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Advertising & BrandingAmazonEnvironmentFacebookGoogleGreenpeaceReggie WattsThe Via AgencyTwitterWed, 20 Aug 2014 15:41:52 +0000159603 at http://www.adweek.comAdweek's Top 5 Commercials of the Week: July 4-11http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/adweeks-top-5-commercials-week-july-4-11-158841
Melissa Hoffmann<p>
In this week&#39;s best ads, two mobile companies&mdash;Samsung and Thailand&#39;s DTAC&mdash;are as far away in their marketing approaches as they are geographically, with the former continuing its attacks on Apple and the latter telling a touching tale of fatherhood in which the tech has only a supporting role.</p>
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Emotional pitches are also at the heart of two of our other top ads this week. One, from Greenpeace, uses Legos and a haunting version of a well-known song to send a very clear message; the other, from Guinness, offers up a patriotic tribute that is as sweet as it is simple.&nbsp;</p>
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Rounding out our top five is a &quot;Did they or didn&#39;t they?&quot; ad from BMW that purports to show its new M4 racing around an aircraft carrier. Many have claimed the footage to be fake&mdash;the company won&#39;t say&mdash;but it&#39;s a great piece of eye candy nonetheless.</p>
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Take a look at our picks below and help us decide which spot was the best this week. And if your favorite isn&#39;t here, tell us in the comments.&nbsp;</p>
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Advertising & BrandingAlcohol advertisingAutomotiveAutomotive advertisingBmwDTACGreenpeaceGuinnessSamsungSmartphonesFri, 11 Jul 2014 14:59:42 +0000158841 at http://www.adweek.comEven If You Hate Greenpeace and Love Lego, You Have to Admire This Gorgeous Attack Adhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/even-if-you-hate-greenpeace-and-love-lego-you-have-admire-gorgeous-attack-ad-158809
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/greenpeace-lego-ad-hed-2014.png"> <p>
Greenpeace takes a page from <a href="/node/152380">Chipotle&#39;s marketing playbook</a>&mdash;haunting animation plus a distressing cover of a well-known song&mdash;in its <a href="/node/158699">continuing assault on Lego</a> for partnering with Shell on a set of Shell-branded Lego products.</p>
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Attacking a beloved brand like Lego isn&#39;t easy. But if you&#39;re going to do it, you need to do it right. And this spot, showing a Lego version of the Arctic drowning in a sea of oil, is incredibly well made by creative agency Don&#39;t Panic&mdash;which, you&#39;ll remember, also did the <a href="/node/156109">memorable Save the Children ad</a> that brought the Syrian war to London.</p>
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The visuals in the Greenpeace spot are beautiful, and the ethereal cover of &quot;Everything Is Awesome,&quot; from The Lego Movie, is the perfectly ironic backdrop. Yes, it is angering people (check out the YouTube comments if you&#39;re looking for a grand old time), but Greenpeace is rarely interested in making friends as it pursues its enemies.</p>
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You can debate whether Lego was right to partner with Shell&mdash;<a href="http://legoblockshell.org/" target="_blank">here</a> is Greenpeace&#39;s point of view, and <a href="http://aboutus.lego.com/en-gb/news-room/2014/july/lego-group-comment-on-greenpeace-campaign" target="_blank">here</a> is Lego&#39;s reply to the attack ad. But as a pure PR play, &quot;Everything Is NOT Awesome&quot; (which has topped 1 million views since Tuesday) is itself pretty awesome.</p>
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<strong>UPDATE</strong>: Greenpeace says the clip was <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/press/releases/Greenpeaces-LEGO-viral-blocked-by-YouTube/" target="_blank">pulled from YouTube</a> because of a complaint from Warner Brothers. But is now up on Vimeo.</p>
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<strong>UPDATE</strong>: Oddly, the video has now been pulled off Vimeo, but is back up on YouTube.<br />
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Advertising & BrandingGreenDon't PanicGreenpeaceLegoToysCreativeAgencyWed, 09 Jul 2014 15:38:35 +0000158809 at http://www.adweek.comGreenpeace Targets Lego for Shell Partnership in New Campaignhttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/greenpeace-targets-lego-shell-partnership-new-campaign-158699
Erik Oster<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/lego-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Environmental group Greenpeace staged a protest today at Legoland in Windsor, England, targeting Lego for their partnership with Shell, <a href="http://www.thedrum.com/news/2014/07/01/greenpeace-blasts-lego-and-shell-partnership-new-global-campaign" target="_blank"><em>The Drum</em> reports</a>. Shell has faced harsh backlash from environmentalists for its arctic drilling program.</p>
<p>
The campaign follows a report from Greenpeace, released today, which documents Lego&#39;s partnership with Shell and saw the environmental group placing banners reading &quot;Save the Arctic&quot; and &quot;Block Shell&quot; across various park landmarks. Lego toys have been made available at Shell gas stations, with some of the toys adopting Shell branding. &quot;Sixteen million Shell-branded Lego toys have been sold or given away at petrol stations in 26 countries,&quot; <a href="http://www.upstreamonline.com/live/1367905/Lego-lands-Shell-in-hot-water-over-Arctic" target="_blank">according to <em>Upstream</em></a>. Greenpeace claims that Shell&#39;s PR company valued their most recent two-year deal with Lego at &quot;$116 million and reported that Shell achieved a 7.5 percent worldwide sales uplift during the promotion,&quot; <em>The Drum </em>reported<em>.</em></p>
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&quot;Climate change is an enormous threat facing all children around the world, but Shell is trying to hijack the magic of Lego to hide its role,&quot; said Ian Duff, arctic campaigner at Greenpeace. &quot;Climate change is an enormous threat facing all children around the world, but Shell is trying to hijack the magic of Lego to hide its role. It is using Lego to clean up its image and divert attention from its dangerous plans to raid the pristine arctic for oil. And it&rsquo;s exploiting kids&rsquo; love of their toys to build lifelong loyalty it doesn&rsquo;t deserve. It&rsquo;s time for Lego to finally pull the plug on this deal. We&rsquo;re calling on Lego to stand up for arctic protection, and for children, by ditching Shell for good.&quot;</p>
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The protest was relatively mild, as far as Greenpeace campaigns go, and saw the group placing banners reading &quot;Save the Arctic&quot; and &quot;Block Shell&quot; across various park landmarks. Shell <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/30/us/shell-arctic/" target="_blank">suspended its plans to begin drilling in the Alaskan arctic</a> earlier this year after a federal ruling put those plans on hold following widespread concerns from environmentalists and Alaskan natives.</p>
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Responding to the Greenpeace protest, Lego <a href="http://aboutus.lego.com/en-us/sustainability/environment" target="_blank">issued a statement</a> outlining targets the company has made to measure environmental performance, while also stating that they will &quot;continue to explore innovative and creative ways to solve the current environmental issues and deliver in compliance with ever-increasing standards.&quot;</p>
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&quot;We&#39;re saddened when the Lego brand is used as a tool in any dispute,&quot; the company stated <a href="https://twitter.com/LEGO_Group" target="_blank">via Twitter</a>, adding that they &quot;fully expect Shell to live up to their responsibility and take appropriate action to any potential claims.&quot;</p>
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Advertising & BrandingArctic drillingGreenpeaceLegoLegolandShellPoliticsTue, 01 Jul 2014 19:26:01 +0000158699 at http://www.adweek.comAd of the Day: Greenpeace Imagines a Brave New World With Robot Honeybeeshttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-greenpeace-images-brave-new-world-robot-honeybees-157406
David Gianatasio<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/newbees-hed-2014.png"> <p>
This gorgeously realized two-minute Greenpeace film posits a near future where honeybees, currently threatened by colony collapse, are replaced by <a href="http://robobees.info/" target="_blank">robotic simulacra</a> that pollinate fields and keep our ecosystem in balance.</p>
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OMG, these robot bees will kill us all! That&#39;s more or less the response this video, from animation studio Woodblock and Alexander Kalchev, director with Polynoid, is designed to evoke, even though it merrily buzzes along without a single bee attack. In fact, the imagery and narration are sunny and reassuring. Yet they court disaster at every turn.</p>
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We&#39;re told that robo-bees can be cheaply mass produced, boast sophisticated triangulation technology, never tire, and best of all, &quot;nothing can harm them.&quot; Of course, the bots &quot;are programmed not to harm us.&quot; Sure, they can &quot;release insecticide to kill predators.&quot; But that&#39;s just for self-defense. No need to worry that these super-bees would make deadly efficient aeriel drones. Why swarm in panic? What could possible go wrong?</p>
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Shots of kids frolicking in the grass with the micro-monstrosities are especially unnerving, and the spot&#39;s true message is communicated at the very end: &quot;Should we create a new world or save our own?&quot;</p>
<p>
Obviously, Greenpeace is saying we should take steps to ensure the survival of real honeybees or face uncertain, even frightening consequences. The group&#39;s recent <a href="/node/157195">&quot;Greenbees&quot;</a> clip used broader humor to make the same point.</p>
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The new spot is slyly provocative and engaging. Still, it won&#39;t be easy getting through to society&#39;s apathetic hive-mind, which mostly wishes activists would just buzz off.<br />
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Advertising & BrandingGreenGreenpeaceCreativeThu, 01 May 2014 16:38:58 +0000157406 at http://www.adweek.comHoneybees Get Fed Up With Humans and Launch 'Greenbees' Protest Movementhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/honeybees-get-fed-humans-and-launch-greenbees-protest-movement-157195
Alfred Maskeroni<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/greenbees-hed-2014.jpg"> <p>
Imagine if bees could stop humans from killing them by hijacking pesticide sprinklers, putting up banners and picketing grocery stores. That would be the bee&#39;s knees.</p>
<p>
Greenpeace has conjured up just such a scenario in its latest ad, &quot;Greenbees,&quot; aimed at raising awareness of the global colony-collapse epidemic threatening honeybee populations. In this spot,&nbsp;tiny hive-minded bee protesters hang signs with messages like &quot;Honey You Sprayed the Kids&quot; and &quot;No Bees, No Future.&quot; (Unlike BBDO&#39;s <a href="http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/grand-prix-good-ants-march-leaf-billboards-bbdos-wwf-stunt-150622">Grand Prix-winning World Wildlife Fund campaign</a>, these bugs are all computer-generated.)</p>
<p>
According to Greenpeace&#39;s related website,&nbsp;<a href="http://sos-bees.org/" target="_blank">sos-bees.org,</a> &quot;Bees and other pollinating insects play an essential role in ecosystems. A third of all our food depends on their pollination. A world without pollinators would be devastating for food production.&quot;</p>
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All they are saying is it&#39;s really gonna sting unless we &quot;give bees a chance.&quot;</p>
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Via <a href="http://adsoftheworld.com/media/online/greenpeace_greenbees" target="_blank">Ads of the World.</a></p>
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<strong>CREDITS</strong></p>
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Creative Director, Copywriter: Daniel Bird<br />
Art Director: Jaroslav Mrazek<br />
Music: Hecq<br />
Production Company: Savage<br />
Executive Producer: Klara Kralickova<br />
Producer: Vojta Ruzicka<br />
Director of Photography: Martin Matiasek<br />
Postproduction: Progressive FX<br />
Producers: Jan Rybar, Jirka Mika<br />
Computer Graphics, Visual Effects Supervisor: Jan Rybar<br />
Animation: Peter Harakaly, Jakub Sporek<br />
Computer Graphics Modelling: Frantisek Stepanek, Martin Frodl, Hynek Pakosta,<br />
Textures: Martin Konecny<br />
Lighting Artist: Frantisek Stepanek<br />
Grading, Compositing: Radek Svoboda<br />
Additional Compositing: Pavel Vicik, Peter Orlicky</p>
Advertising & BrandingActivismAnimalsEnvironmentGreenpeaceHoney BeesWed, 23 Apr 2014 17:18:47 +0000157195 at http://www.adweek.comDownton Abbey's Carson Makes for One Intensely Unhinged Santahttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/downton-abbeys-carson-makes-one-intensely-unhinged-santa-154311
David Gianatasio<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/santa-greenpeace-hed-2013_0.jpg"> <p>
Jim Carter, who plays Downton Abbey&#39;s reserved and dignified butler, Carson, brilliantly interprets Santa Claus as a disheveled, on-the-edge shadow of his jolly old self in this striking British Greenpeace spot about <a href="https://www.savesantashome.org/" target="_blank">the impact of global warming and oil drilling at the North Pole</a>.</p>
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&quot;Dear children, regrettably I bring bad tidings,&quot; he begins, his precise, cultured tones barely repressing his outrage&mdash;and rage&mdash;over his predicament. &quot;Melting ice here at the North Pole has made our operations and our day-to-day life intolerable and impossible, and there may be no alternative but to cancel Christmas.&quot;</p>
<p>
In a chilling closeup, a single light shines into his mottled beard and weary face as he reports, &quot;I have written personally to President Obama, President Putin&mdash;all world leaders. Sadly, my letters have been met with indifference. Needless to say, these individuals are now at the top of my naughty list.&quot;</p>
<p>
Carter delivers his sad soliloquy in a dank, cell-like room, and dripping-water sounds punctuate his pleas. His Father Christmas coat&#39;s grimy and undone, and he looks emotionally and physically exhausted. These details give him the appearance of a political prisoner, an appropriate metaphor given the subject, and the stark, intense direction by Rattling Stick&#39;s Ed Morris creates an atmosphere of unease and despair. Greenpeace always has trouble connecting with the average consumer, and it&#39;s hard to tell if this spot will melt some cold hearts or leave the group&#39;s image as doom-heralding extremists burned into viewers&#39; minds.</p>
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Advertising & BrandingDownton AbbeyEnvironmentGreenpeaceHolidaysSanta ClausThu, 05 Dec 2013 16:49:55 +0000154311 at http://www.adweek.comAd of the Day: Greenpeacehttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ad-day-greenpeace-141752
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/news_article/greenpeace_homeless_bear.jpg"> <p>
Last month in Cannes, Bill Clinton exhorted advertising people to use their powers of communication <a href="/node/141295">to elucidate, and thus help solve, some of the world&#39;s most pressing problems</a>&mdash;in particular, global warming. This new Greenpeace video from Partizan in London is presumably the kind of messaging to which he was referring.</p>
<p>
Set to Radiohead&#39;s &quot;Everything in Its Right Place,&quot; from <em>Kid A</em>, the spot&mdash;titled &quot;A Homeless Polar Bear in London&quot;&mdash;shows a polar bear nosing around the decaying, smog-choked British capital, the detritus of rampant consumerism strewn about everywhere. &quot;As the Arctic melts, the rush to exploit its resources is starting,&quot; the actor Jude Law says in the voiceover. &quot;Nobody will listen to her,&quot; he says, as we see the bear slump down near a pile of garbage under a tree. &quot;But they&#39;ll listen to you. Join the movement. Save the Arctic.&quot; Onscreen text then points to <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/SaveTheArctic" target="_blank">greenpeace.org/SaveTheArctic</a> and pushed the hashtag #SaveTheArctic.</p>
<p>
Visually, the spot is quite an achievement. The CGI bear meshes impressively with the environment, and the scenery is oppressively bleak. And while some will surely complain that it is maudlin&mdash;and perhaps too obvious and heavy-handed in its imagery&mdash;it nonetheless generates an undeniable power, largely through the haunting soundtrack.</p>
<p>
The oil company Shell takes a particular beating in the video, as the bear at one point stumbles into a Shell gas station and sniffs the gas pump disconsolately.</p>
<p>
Both Law and Radiohead&#39;s Thom Yorke have released statements about the spot. Law says: &quot;As the Arctic sea ice melts, polar bears are being forced to go far beyond their normal habitat to find food and look after their young. This film is a powerful expression of how our fates are intertwined, because climate change is affecting all of us no matter where we live. Right now a handful of oil companies are trying to carve up the Arctic for the sake of the next quarterly results but a global movement is growing to stop them. I stand with hundreds of thousands of others who think the area should be made into a sanctuary, protected from corporate greed for good.&quot;</p>
<p>
Yorke adds: &quot;An oil spill in the Arctic would devastate this region of breathtaking beauty, while burning that oil will only add to the biggest problem we all face, climate change. That&#39;s why I&#39;m backing this campaign.&quot;</p>
<p>
Clinton may have a new spot to add to the DirecTV campaign in his list of favorite ads.<br />
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<strong>CREDITS</strong><br />
Client: Greenpeace<br />
Creatives: Michael Geoghegan, Simon Riley<br />
Production: Partizan, London<br />
Director: Michael Geoghegan<br />
Producer: Russell Curtis<br />
Director of Photography: Vincent Warin<br />
Editing House: Stitch, London<br />
Editor: Leo King<br />
Post Production: The Moving Picture Company, London</p>
Advertising & BrandingGreenAd of The DayGreenpeaceCreativeMon, 09 Jul 2012 17:04:29 +0000141752 at http://www.adweek.comGreenpeace Fans Ambush Volkswagen's Facebook Wallhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/greenpeace-fans-ambush-volkswagens-facebook-wall-137340
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/vw-death-star.jpg"> <p>
Social media is funny. You ask an innocent question, and you get a load of abuse in return. Volkswagen U.K. is learning that this week, as its <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VolkswagenUK/posts/335761799785167" target="_blank">fairly innocuous New Year&#39;s greeting to fans</a> was ambushed by Greenpeace. &quot;We hope you had a fantastic New Year. Do you have any resolutions and what would you like to see us do more of this year?&quot; the auto brand wrote on Tuesday. For the rest of that day, the replies were mostly benign&mdash;stuff about products and features that fans would like to see. But on Wednesday morning, Greenpeace U.K. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/greenpeaceuk/posts/144670398978488" target="_blank">posted its own note to Facebook,</a> urging its fans to ambush the VW post. &quot;Hello friends!&quot; Greenpeace wrote. &quot;Volkswagen are asking on their Facebook page &#39;what would you like to see us do more of this year?&#39; Well, Volkswagen U.K., we&#39;d like you to stop threatening our planet by lobbying against climate laws. That would make a nice 2012. Click on their link and add your message.&quot; Sure enough, hundreds did&mdash;and the VW post has since become a mucky string of insults. VW hasn&#39;t responded, and probably won&#39;t have to. This is a different situation than the <a href="/node/136097">ChapStick</a> and <a href="/node/137070">Lowe&#39;s</a> scandals, where the criticisms were much more pointed and specific to particular moves by those brands&mdash;not part of <a href="/node/132998">an ongoing critique</a> (see the video below) over broad corporate policy. The moral of the story? Perhaps don&#39;t ask what you can do better if you&#39;re already a target of environmental groups. Anyway, it&#39;s unpleasant for VW&mdash;and is drowning out some pretty good suggestions for other resolutions the brand should make for 2012. For example: &quot;Some more great adverts!&quot; Via <a href="http://workthatmatters.blogspot.com/2012/01/2012s-first-epic-social-media-fail.html" target="_blank">Work That Matters.</a></p>
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Advertising & BrandingAutomotiveGreenControversyFacebookGreenpeaceSocialVolkswagenThu, 05 Jan 2012 17:05:32 +0000137340 at http://www.adweek.comGreenpeace Ad Celebrates 40 Years of Pissing People Offhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/greenpeace-ad-celebrates-40-years-pissing-people-134900
Tim Nudd<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/greenpeace-40.jpg"> <p>
Here&#39;s an amusing little 40th-birthday spot for Greenpeace, directed by Peter Thwaites (of Georgeous/Les T&eacute;l&eacute;cr&eacute;ateurs), in which various greedy corporate bigwigs literally curse the group after being defeated in some sort of environmental scuffle. Greenpeace celebrated its anniversary in Vancouver yesterday&mdash;40 years to the day since the Don&#39;t Make a Wave Committee sent a boat named Greenpeace from Vancouver to Amchitka Island, Alaska, to protest American nuclear testing there. The group subsequently adopted the name Greenpeace.&nbsp;</p>
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="302" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sPpU1EKYBGM" width="484"></iframe></p>
Advertising & BrandingGreenGreenpeaceCreativeAgencyFri, 16 Sep 2011 12:45:02 +0000134900 at http://www.adweek.comDetox Looks Fun in Greenpeace's Challenge to Nike and Adidashttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/detox-looks-fun-greenpeaces-challenge-nike-and-adidas-133448
Gabriel Beltrone<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/greenpeace-detox.jpg"> <p>
Last month, an ad spoof from <strike>the Ewoks at</strike> Greenpeace informed us that <a href="/node/132998">Volkswagen operates a Death Star</a> that&#39;s about to pulverize the earth with a giant laser beam. Now, the environmental advocates have set their sights on the evil sportswear people at Adidas and Nike, who are apparently hurting the planet with a combination of impressive athleticism, brightly hued clothing, and being so damn painfully hip. Also, they use suppliers in China that are polluting rivers there with chemicals that have &quot;hormone-disrupting properties,&quot; Greenpeace claims. Yikes. Don&#39;t they get it? Adidas and Nike can&#39;t stop using that stuff&mdash;the mutant power of the products is what transforms their buyers into totally gorgeous, superhuman, supertalented physical specimens. Without that, they&#39;re nothing.<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; While we genuinely appreciate the attempt to mock <a href="/node/14976">Adidas&#39; A-lister-stuffed celebrity house party spot</a> from a couple of years ago, we might suggest not making the people you&#39;re trying to shame look like they&#39;re having so much damn fun. Honestly, it makes us want to buy their stuff more, not less.<br />
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; P.S.: Showing a graffiti artist using an aerosol can to spray paint your campaign logo onto a wall, even satirically, doesn&#39;t exactly scream environmentally friendly.</p>
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Advertising & BrandingGreenAdidasGreenpeaceNikeFri, 15 Jul 2011 13:52:09 +0000133448 at http://www.adweek.comVolkswagen Turns to the Dark Side in Greenpeace's Little Vader Parodyhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/volkswagen-turns-dark-side-greenpeaces-little-vader-parody-132998
Gabriel Beltrone<img src="http://www.adweek.com/files/imagecache/node-detail/blogs/greenpeace-darth-vader.jpg"> <p>
Greenpeace has jumped on the Volkswagen Little Vader spoof bandwagon, mocking the automaker&#39;s much-feted Super Bowl spot <a href="/node/11594">&quot;The Force&quot;</a> with a new environmentally friendly online campaign. Marvel already parodied the VW ad with <a href="/node/130922">a mini-<em>Thor </em>spot</a> to promote the comic publisher&#39;s new movie. But the Jedi tree huggers&mdash;including, naturally, Yoda&mdash;are taking a more pointed, direct shot at VW, blaming the company for destroying the world. Literally&mdash;like, a giant, looming, VW-branded Death Star blowing up the planet with a green laser. VW has been lobbying against cuts to carbon emissions in Europe and has lagged behind competitors in reducing emissions from new models, Greenpeace says. R2D2, meanwhile, maintains the highest efficiency standards.&nbsp;</p>
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Advertising & BrandingAutomotiveGreenGreenpeaceParodyStar WarsVolkswagenTue, 28 Jun 2011 18:05:05 +0000132998 at http://www.adweek.comKen Tells Barbie to Stop Killing Treeshttp://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/ken-tells-barbie-stop-killing-trees-132341
Kari Lipschutz<p>
Mattel employees were treated to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-greenpeace-mattel-20110608,0,2905499.story?track=rss&amp;utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fbusiness+%28L.A.+Times+-+Business%29&amp;utm_content=Google+Reader">a spectacle</a> yesterday at the company&rsquo;s California headquarters. Greenpeace activists clad in outfits Barbie would be proud of rappelled down the side of Mattel&rsquo;s 15-story building to unfurl a massive banner depicting an unhappy Ken doll breaking the bad news to his longtime love, &quot;Barbie: It&#39;s over. I don&#39;t date girls that are into deforestation.&quot; A compatriot in pink and blue Spandex held down the fort on the ground level with a bright pink skip loader.</p>
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The stunt was part of Greenpeace&rsquo;s ongoing campaign to pressure Mattel into halting the use of materials in their packaging that come from imperiled biodiversity-filled rainforests in Indonesia. The ultimate target of the flashy campaign is not Mattel itself, but rather Asia Pulp &amp; Paper, Mattel&rsquo;s paper supplier. The common activist tactic of &ldquo;naming and shaming&rdquo; is in this case hoping to put pressure on Mattel to cancel its AP&amp;P contract.</p>
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It was Mattel this time that was on the receiving end of Greenpeace&rsquo;s guerrilla approach to fighting deforestation, but they are in good company. McDonald&rsquo;s, Unilever, Burger King, and Nestl&eacute; have all endured their share of the blame game.</p>
Advertising & BrandingBarbieGreenpeaceIndonesiaMattelWed, 08 Jun 2011 07:09:52 +0000132341 at http://www.adweek.comGreenpeace's milk ads do not go down easyhttp://www.adweek.com/adfreak/greenpeaces-milk-ads-do-not-go-down-easy-12105
David Gianatasio<p><a href="http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/10/greenpeaces-milk-ads-do-not-go-down-easy.html" style="display: inline;"><img alt="Greenpeace-milk" class="asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c51c053ef0134881b4ffc970c" src="/files/adfreak/6a00d8341c51c053ef0134881b4ffc970c-450wi" style="width: 425px;" title="Greenpeace-milk" /></a></p>
<p>Apes and monkeys are all over adland these days. And not just in the planning department. (Hi-yo!) Here, Greenpeace in New Zealand blasts dairy company Fonterra for practices that contribute to the destruction of orangutans&#39; rainforest homes. The spot has a creepy build-up. You know something bad&#39;s gonna happen. But it&#39;s ultimately more unsettling and icky than out-and-out horrific. Pfizer&#39;s got the <a href="http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/freakiest09popup1.html" target="_blank">gross-stuff-caught-in-your-throat</a> market cornered, after all. Anyway, now we&#39;ve got a beverage to wash down <a href="http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/2010/03/break-me-off-a-piece-of-that-orangutan-hand.html" target="_self">those Greenpeace orangutan-finger bars</a>! Via <a href="http://osocio.org/message/the_milk_ad_they_dont_want_you_to_see/" target="_blank">Osocio</a>.</p>
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</p>http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/greenpeaces-milk-ads-do-not-go-down-easy-12105#commentsAdvertising & BrandingAnimalsEnvironmentFood and drinkGianatasioGreenpeaceNew ZealandMon, 11 Oct 2010 13:27:20 +000012105 at http://www.adweek.com